Estimating Hours On Access Control Projects

I only did estimating for a short time, and I kinda just broke it out in a way that made sense to me.

Cable runs I timed separately, usually by area or group of devices. So like if there are four doors close to one another, going back to the same panel, I'd say like 2 hours to pull all the cables for those doors back to the panel. And then 3 hours for these other two doors because they are further away, or take a bunch of corners.

The time for the doors would include fishing the wire and mounting devices. We didn't do strike cut ins at that company I worked for.

Panel hours would include mounting and terminating the panel. And then programming hours would include configuring software and stuff.

The company had a default formula for adding what we called "downtime hours" I think it was like just a blanket 5%, or 10% if the job got to be a certain size. This was supposed to help with little things like coffee breaks, or "I forgot the cable in the van" or random difficulties that couldn't be accounted for.

I'm not even sure how the quote look, as I did the estimating on a worksheet, and then it went to the sales rep to compile the quote, but I broke it out as cable hours, panel hours, and per door hours.

I believe the default per panel was 3 or 4 hours, and doors were 1.5-2. Cable hours varied, me looking at the plans and doing a site visit to estimate how long it would take to pull the cable from one space to another, along with j-hooks and such. 

The previous system prior to me taking over was just number of hours per door, and that included everything for the door, wiring it at both ends, pulling and fishing the cable, and mounting the hardware.

Panels included mounting and programming, I think the idea was no random items on the estimate sheet, part numbers only.

It worked for us, or for me. The bosses seemed to enjoy breaking out the hours more, helped track where things were possibly taking longer or less time. It helped give the tech a better idea of how long they should be spending on certain tasks, instead of just "Do this door in four hours".

The system wasn't perfect, because I was fairly inexperienced, I had done very little install work myself, mostly service, and then suddenly I was estimating. None of the jobs I quoted went over hours, and none were terribly over quoted. Though we probably were quite over on cabling, as I quoted more by the box than by meter.

I have an excel sheet ROM estimator that break out ACAMS for multiple environments.

1) Existing Office Space - Occupied/Unoccupied

2) Office Space - New Construction/TI - Hi-rise/pancake

3) Warehouse - Lift Work, Long Cable Runs

4) OSHPD, Asbestos, Port Longshoreman, Hazardous Environment.

I plug in my quantities 8 readers or 500, then start to work on the variables specific to the project like value engineering, installation that can happen on the same timeline without complicating the sequence.

If it is not a hard spec, I always build in three dimensions using multiple manufacturer systems for comparisons and alternates to generate different points of view.

I bring the costs and function to the table with the sales team, educate them on the differences and nuances of each design. Once we are in an agreement we comb over the selected proposal. Using the sales team input will help you identify all the promises and variables that they mentioned to the client but are not mentioning to you. I hold them to the fire, after a few successful jobs they get the workflow.

For small jobs I crank those out in my sleep, jobs in the millions can take a few hours to ROM depending on the information available. Experience allows you to coast all day long and laugh at half of the RFP that come across your desk.

The last thing I can say, is to go back to the jobs you have estimated and have been completed. Review all the positive and negative costs, struggles or successes with the Project Manager and Technicians. Find out if your design needs tweaks that can make everyone lives easier. It most cases they will have a lot of changes, just let them know that the value revolves around the client and their expectations. Job reviews after completion will help you understand where you went wrong with your design. So cheers to those that try whether they fail or succeed.